Southern Ontario CX

Greetings world cyclists, the CX season is upon us and for some in N america it is almost over regrettably.
This will be my third season racing road and CX and I'm starting to notice the progress. I started racing CX in Vancouver in 2008 and for my first race in Brighton park on the Eclipse, a touring bike sold to me be a friend made of what felt like turn of the century aluminum. I remember enduring the sweet pain and laughing as negotiated the course. I felt like I was 9 yrs old, front derailleur jamming, getting caught at the base of hills in big ring, crashing and working much too hard. I finished the race with a small tingling in my stomach. I was in love.
Since then I have gone to Portland,OR. twice to compete in the USGP, not to crush anyone but to be a part of the the CX embrace. A bosom so comforting one toys with the idea of dropping road. We love the road but we wish it was rid of it's staunchiness, wattmeters and weight weenies. Oh and rid of it's shaky riders as well. CX doesn't have this to any degree. I think it was Jeremy Powers I once heard say " CX isn't fun, screwing my girlfriend is fun. CX is about pain". I prefer to elaborate and suggest CX is about pain and beer.
I moved back to Ontariario last year and the CX scene here is fantastic and getting fantasticker. We have approx 15 races in S Ontario and a whole bunch more in E Ontario as well. There's a lot of CX here and the courses are truly fantastic. Where BC has the mountains their CX courses are relatively flat. Here in Ontario we don't have them mountains but we make up for it in CX.
CX season will be coming to an end in 2 weeks and I'm sad to see a good friend go. I did invest in an excellent set of rollers this year, but there's nothing like grass under the tubulars. I will be getting the road bike painted which is exciting and I' collecting a full DA 7400 series groupo for a build I have in mind. I'm thinking of a De Rosa Neo Primato.

Christie pits, Toronto
My cx skills have noticeably improved as I am working very hard on them and searching for the 'ballerina' within. Some great successes have occurred when I concentrate on being smooth and graceful combined with powering hard out of the corners. But when you try to stomp on the course, the course will stomp on you. I'm riding steel, made in Canada, and loving it.